Reading JSON from SimpleHTTPServer Post data

Asked 12/7, 2015 at 18:31 Answered 13/7, 2015 at 21:38

Solved python ajax rest simplejson simplehttpserver

I am trying to build a simple REST server with python SimpleHTTPServer. I am having problem reading data from the post message. Please let me know if I am doing it right.

from SimpleHTTPServer import SimpleHTTPRequestHandler
import SocketServer
import simplejson

class S(SimpleHTTPRequestHandler):
    def _set_headers(self):
        self.send_response(200)
        self.send_header('Content-type', 'text/html')
        self.end_headers()

    def do_GET(self):
        print "got get request %s" % (self.path)
        if self.path == '/':
          self.path = '/index.html'
          return SimpleHTTPRequestHandler.do_GET(self)

    def do_POST(self):
        print "got post!!"
        content_len = int(self.headers.getheader('content-length', 0))
        post_body = self.rfile.read(content_len)
        test_data = simplejson.loads(post_body)
        print "post_body(%s)" % (test_data)
        return SimpleHTTPRequestHandler.do_POST(self)

def run(handler_class=S, port=80):
    httpd = SocketServer.TCPServer(("", port), handler_class)
    print 'Starting httpd...'
    httpd.serve_forever()

The index.html file

<html>
<title>JSON TEST PAGE</title>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">

JSONTest = function() {

var resultDiv = $("#resultDivContainer");

$.ajax({
    url: "http://128.107.138.51:8080",
    type: "POST",
    data: {txt1: $("#json_text").val()},
    dataType: "json",
    success: function (result) {
        switch (result) {
            case true:
                processResponse(result);
                break;
            default:
                resultDiv.html(result);
        }
    },
    error: function (xhr, ajaxOptions, thrownError) {
    alert(xhr.status);
    alert(thrownError);
    }
});
};

</script>
</head>
<body>

<h1>My Web Page</h1>
<div id="resultDivContainer"></div>
<form>
<textarea name="json_text" id="json_text" rows="50" cols="80">
[{"resources": {"dut": "any_ts", "endpoint1": "endpoint", "endpoint2": "endpoint"}},
{"action": "create_conference", "serverName": "dut", "confName": "GURU_TEST"}]
</textarea>
<button type="button" onclick="JSONTest()">Generate Test</button>
</form>
</body>
</html>

The SimpleJson fails to load the json from the POST message. I am not familiar with web coding and I am not even sure if what I am doing is right for creating a simple REST API server. I appreciate your help.

Cowling answered 12/7, 2015 at 18:31 Comment(2)

Also please let me know if this is not the way to go and if having a django is the only way to go. – Cowling 12/7, 2015 at 18:33

getheaders is not implemented in Python 3 on self.headers. Use self.headers['Content-Length'] instead. If header doesn't exists, it will return None. – Chlorenchyma 2/10, 2019 at 20:26

Thanks matthewatabet for the klein idea. I figured a way to implement it using BaseHTTPHandler. The code below.

from BaseHTTPServer import BaseHTTPRequestHandler, HTTPServer
import SocketServer
import simplejson
import random

class S(BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
    def _set_headers(self):
        self.send_response(200)
        self.send_header('Content-type', 'text/html')
        self.end_headers()

    def do_GET(self):
        self._set_headers()
        f = open("index.html", "r")
        self.wfile.write(f.read())

    def do_HEAD(self):
        self._set_headers()

    def do_POST(self):
        self._set_headers()
        print "in post method"
        self.data_string = self.rfile.read(int(self.headers['Content-Length']))

        self.send_response(200)
        self.end_headers()

        data = simplejson.loads(self.data_string)
        with open("test123456.json", "w") as outfile:
            simplejson.dump(data, outfile)
        print "{}".format(data)
        f = open("for_presen.py")
        self.wfile.write(f.read())
        return


def run(server_class=HTTPServer, handler_class=S, port=80):
    server_address = ('', port)
    httpd = server_class(server_address, handler_class)
    print 'Starting httpd...'
    httpd.serve_forever()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    from sys import argv

if len(argv) == 2:
    run(port=int(argv[1]))
else:
    run()

And the corresponding html page

<form action="/profile/index/sendmessage" method="post" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded">
<div class="upload_form">
    <dt id="message-label"><label class="optional" for="message">Enter Message</label></dt>
    <dd id="message-element">
    <textarea cols="80" rows="50" id="message" name="message">
[{"resources": {"dut": "any_ts", "endpoint1": "multistream_endpoint", "endpoint2": "multistream_endpoint"}},

{"action": "create_conference", "serverName": "dut", "conferenceName": "GURU_SLAVE_TS"},

{"action": "dial_out_ep", "serverName": "dut", "confName": "GURU_SLAVE_TS", "epName": "endpoint1"}
]
        </textarea></dd>
    <dt id="id-label">&nbsp;</dt>
    <dd id="id-element">
    <input type="hidden" id="id" value="145198" name="id"></dd>
    <dt id="send_message-label">&nbsp;</dt>
    <dd id="send_message-element">
    <input type="submit" class="sendamessage" value="Send" id="send_message" name="send_message"></dd>
</div>
</form>

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$("input.sendamessage").click(function(event) {
event.preventDefault();

var message = $('textarea#message').val();
var id      = $('input#id').val();
url = "http://128.107.138.51:8080"

var posting = $.post(url, message)

posting.done(function( data ) {
  alert(message);
});
});


</script>

Cowling answered 13/7, 2015 at 21:38 Comment(1)

In the do_POST() function, you are sending twice response and end_headers(). – Stilwell 13/12, 2018 at 8:15

SimpleHTTPRequestHandler does not support POST. It's very simple indeed. Check out Klein whose server is a bit more full-featured.

There's an example of a json PUT (pretty close to POST) here: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/klein/0.2.3

import json

from klein import Klein


class ItemStore(object):
    app = Klein()

    def __init__(self):
        self._items = {}

    @app.route('/')
    def items(self, request):
        request.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json')
        return json.dumps(self._items)

    @app.route('/<string:name>', methods=['PUT'])
    def save_item(self, request, name):
        request.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json')
        body = json.loads(request.content.read())
        self._items[name] = body
        return json.dumps({'success': True})

    @app.route('/<string:name>', methods=['GET'])
    def get_item(self, request, name):
        request.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json')
        return json.dumps(self._items.get(name))


if __name__ == '__main__':
    store = ItemStore()
    store.app.run('localhost', 8080)

Specht answered 12/7, 2015 at 19:17 Comment(2)

Thanks for the link. I also figured it could be done with BaseHTTPHandler. – Cowling 13/7, 2015 at 20:35

BaseHTTPRequestHandler does, so there's no real reason to use a completely different package, this can still be done with the built-in modules. – Iloilo 5/2, 2023 at 23:8

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